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The death of ‘girl raped in the bus’ in Delhi has stirred the emotions of billions of people through national & international media. This incident has once again spurred the much forgotten role of women and their empowerment in the social system of the world.

This issue of rape, sexual assault & abuse is not only a stigma to India or United States of America; rather it’s a quandary which has crept in the social systems of every nation throughout the globe. The sexual assault expert at the Utah center for sexual victims says that behind a rape the sole motive isn’t sexual pleasure rather its an amalgamation of anger, frustration & aggression.

With the societal confinements lessening for females, we expect that the number of sexual harassment will also diminish gradually. But unfortunately, the numbers continue to rise at a higher pace in countries like America where liberalism abated chauvinism long before Pakistan.

What could be the reason for this horrendous but factual increase in sexual assaults? Experts agree that perhaps with awareness in developed countries, more people are prone to report this act of brutality which was a hidden malice before.

What’s unfortunate for countries like Pakistan here is, that this desecration still lurks in our society either more or at least equivalent to the developed countries. This tyrannical rule of men is difficult to treat or even identify as an issue in cultures like Pakistan & India. The woman of the house is considered an honorable ‘commodity’ which is to be kept within the confinement of the four walls.

Since Zia-ul-Haq’s rule the concept of Chaardewari(home) & chaadar was linked with Islamization. This further accentuated the fanatics who considered that a woman out of the Chaardewari was indulged in an unIslamic activity & ought to be reprimanded accordingly.

Pakistani society under the influential bureaucrats has exploited Islamization on many avenues of which one is the subjugation of females. We all know about the incident of the girl in Delhi because the police efficiently took notice of it.

But we all remained ignorant of the 12 year old Muqadas Kainat raped in Sahiwal on 25th August, 2012. The girl was brutally strangled to death while her father Rafiq Masih was attending to her mother at the hospital. The laxness showed by police in the investigation in this case went unnoticed for two reasons. The first is that she was a woman & this label in our society is enough to undermine her basic right of living. The second reason was that she was from a minority; her religion & beliefs adduced her as a vulnerable & inferior being whose murderers didn’t deserve any predicaments.

This case of Muqadas is not a one of its kind. 23rd December, 2012, a 14 year old Hindu girl was raped in socially primitive area of Chachro, by a political worker. The girl was atrociously abused & bruised. Her parents took her to the hospital where she wasn’t admitted for check up without a registered FIR. The police invariably refused to register an FIR as the Hindu woman was worth abhorrence anyways.

Asiyah Masih in Vihari was raped for eleven days by politically influential culprits until she was recovered on November 22nd,2012. The two perpetrators Mohammed Javed & Mumtaz forcibly converted her to Islam & defied all norms & values of humanity concurrently. Once again the cyclical violence of our society flaunted its vindictive attitude towards females & the criminals were neither arrested nor an FIR registered against them.

The abuse of women is increasing not only due to the appallingly silent police. But the major chunk of this violence is contributed by us! Our silence & societal treatment is a sign of our sub-conscious support of these spiteful acts. The silence is prolonged & justice eventually dismissed especially when the victim is from a minority religion or an ethnically different caste.

While, the whole globe has accepted women as an equivalent to men, the fanatics in Pakistan continue to despise any sort of freedom granted to women. No matter what liberal stances we put forth, we are still under the influence of Zia-ul-Haq’s Hadood ordinance. Our nurturance, our brought up & social environment still considers women as a subordinate to men. Their individuality, sexuality, passions & expressions are all bound to be under domineering rule of men.

The faulty beliefs upheld by the Pakistanis ought to be changed and modified according to the real principles of Islam. Our upbringing is faulty which assuages the desires of male ego in the name of religion while disregarding the basic rules of humanity & morality. Islam never taught us to treat females as an inferior half of the society. Women the source of humanity & perpetuators of our species, how can we defy their basic rights? How can we negate their literacy, education & dishonor their existence?

We need to stop & reinvent the patterns of thinking we are living & sharing with our coming generations as per the rules of our religion & humanity!

[49:13] O people, we created you from the same male and female, and rendered you distinct peoples and tribes, that you may recognize one another. The best among you in the sight of GOD is the most righteous. GOD is Omniscient, Cognizant.